Backyardigans taking over my brain…

Truly, the Backyardigans have taken over my brain. We watch the Noggin channel at my house, along with Discovery Kids, Ready, Set, Learn programming (you saw the video of Brianna loving Hi-5 and I think the little penguin, Paz, that is on Ready, Set, Learn is adorable) but the two children’s shows that I tivo are Hi-5 and the Backyardigans. It’s the music. My baby loves music. She has always stopped whatever she is doing to listen to a new song coming on. If she particularly loves the beat, she will stop to dance. She’s done this as long as I can remember- even if dancing was only waving arms and legs. Now that she’s standing and walking on her own more, dancing involves some deep knee bends and shoulder shrugs with head bobbing. It’s so cute.

For a long time, it was Noggin’s Move to the Music series that was stuck in my brain. I know all the words to Laurie Berkner’s songs (We are the Dinosaurs, Victor Vito, and Bumblebee, Buzz Buzz are just a few. You can watch the videos on Noggin if you’re so inclined). Josh and I will sing them to Brianna during dinner, in the bath, at the mall… they get stuck in your head and you can’t shake them loose. And I have always stopped to sing a Catch the Moon by Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell to Brianna when it comes on. It’s “our” song. But now, it’s the Backyardigans taking over my brain. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like the Backyardigans. I watch them when Brianna isn’t even in the room. They’re cute, they’re not annoying and the music is REALLY catchy. Noggin also plays one of their songs during their little Move to the Music Segments (it’s one of the things they do in between shows in place of commercials). Yes, I hear Riding the Range several times a day. And I cannot seem to stop singing this song. It plays over and over again in my brain in an endless rotation. The video is actually pretty delightful- the little Backyardigans do some cute dancing and I read somewhere that they actually have choreographers planning these routines. But, you know, there was a time when I used to have adult songs stuck in my head. Now, I hear recent music in the car, if I’m lucky, and then it’s probably country which seems to be the safest choice with a child in the car.

And you know what else is really sad? I’ve found myself using the word “wahoo”. I’m fairly certain I picked that up from the Backyardigans. Along with “great googly-moogly” from Maggi and the Ferocious Beast, “golly”, and “oh my gosh” from Oswald and “perfecto” and “lovely” from Oobi. Oh yes, the most mature words for an adult to be using.

So here I sit, 10:30 at night and I was frantically trying to find a clip of Riding the Range to listen to. I had to hear it. My daughter has been in bed for hours so I can’t even pretend it’s for her. Finally, I discover that Nick Jr. has Video clips of the Backyardigans songs that you can watch. But it wouldn’t work for me. Oh my gosh. I was getting seriously upset because it kept saying I don’t have the most recent version of Windows Media Player so I couldn’t see the video. I do, damn you Nick Jr! I do!! I try to find other sites but I have no luck. Only Nick Jr. can give me my fix. So I go to the help section, hoping there is an instant cure for my problem. By golly, there is! It seems that Nick Jr. only plays nice with Internet Explorer and I use Firefox. Great googly-moogly! So I open IE, paste in the web address to the Riding the Range video and… Wahoo!! There it is. Lovely. Just lovely. I’ve only watched it 3 or 4 times. I swear. Ahhh… perfecto!

I dare you to watch the video (or any other of the variety they offer) and tell me it’s not catchy. You’ll wake up in the morning singing the song and swearing at me…

For mine, it’s A Pirate Says Arr. Over and over. We’ve really got to get Noggin — we’ve got some episodes videotaped, but I made the mistake once of visiting nickjr.com and showing her the videos and activity stuff there. Now it’s very, very, very difficult to have the laptop in the living room without her asking for one of the Backyardigans videos. Gah.

We used to watch Hi-5, but the kids really creeped me out. I love Paz, but my son thinks he’s for babies. My son’s favorite song these days is Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.” He’s six, and he’s already a head-banger. It’s great that Brianna loves music so much already, it’s so much fun to explore that with your child.

Tara Marie
on September 4, 2005 at 9:06 AM

My son is 4 and he loves the programs on TLC (Paz, The Magic School Bus, Hi-5). When he was Brianna’s age he loved the programing on Noggin, you can also find the Backyardigans on Nick Jr. He also likes Lazy Town, which I can’t stand. We also watch a tremendous amount of “Thomas the Tank Engine”.

Well, I don’t have kids, BUT I did happen to catch an episode of The Koala Brothers on the Disney Channel and they were pretty darn cute (no music though).

When Brianna gets a little bit older, she might like They Might Be Giants. They have a CD called Here Come the ABC’s that’s pretty cute. They Might Be Giants also does the music for Higglytown Heroes on Disney. My husband is a big fan of theirs which is how I know all this stuff.

My daughter, Vada is 10 months old, and is already a Backyardigan’s fan. She got the giant stuffed pablo for Christmas from “Santa”. I really don’t mind watching the b-yard’s either. I would much rather be stuck watching that than say, BARNEY. The song she seams to like the most is from the Polka episode, “Feeding Time”… she bounces up and down to it, and even claps. MY favorite is Yeti Stomp. The CD from Nick Jr is in the car, and I find myself listening to it when it’s just me. HOW SAD AM I? LOL!